After an errant forehand in the first set of the US Open final, Naomi Osaka looked at her coach in the almost empty Arthur Ashe Stadium bleachers with her palms up, as if to say, “What the hell is going on?” In response to another whimsical forehand against Victoria Azarenka seconds later, Osaka dropped her racket. It spun around a bit and rattled against the court.
Surprisingly out of place in the early hours of Saturday, Osaka continued to miss shots and dig a deficit. Until all of a sudden, he picked up his game and Azarenka couldn’t sustain his start. In the end, Osaka managed a 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 comeback victory for his second US Open championship and third Grand Slam title overall.
A quarter of a century had passed since the last time the woman who lost the first set of a US Open final ended up winning: in 1994, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario did it against Steffi Graf.
This was a back and forth affair. Even after Osaka took a 4-1 lead in the third set, the outcome was unclear. He held four break points in the next game, convert any of them and it would have served for the victory at 5-1, but Azarenka was unfazed.
Azarenka stayed there, somehow, and broke to go 4-3, then stood up and stretched during the change that followed.
But Osaka regained control, breaking to start a match-ending three-game streak, covering his face when the final ended.
Osaka, a 22-year-old girl born in Japan and now based in the United States, added to her trophies from the 2018 US Open, won with a brilliant performance in a memorably chaotic final against Serena Williams, and the 2019 Australian Open.
The more than 23,000 seats in the main arena at Flushing Meadows were not fully claimed, only mostly, while fans were not allowed to attend due to the coronavirus pandemic, dozens of people who worked on the tournament attended, and the cavernous place. He wasn’t completely silent, just for the most part.
Certainly no thunderous applause or cacophony of shouts that would normally reverberate over and over and over again during the course of a Grand Slam final, accompanying player introductions either before the first point or after the biggest of blows.
Instead, a polite handful of applause from various hands marked those moments.
Osaka entered the court wearing a black mask bearing the name of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old black boy killed by police in Ohio in 2014. Osaka arrived in New York wearing seven masks bearing the names of black victims of violence and was wearing a different one for each game, honoring Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, Trayvon Martin, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and Philando Castile.
She has been at the forefront of efforts in tennis to raise awareness of racial injustice in the United States. She joined athletes in various sports by refusing to compete last month after the Jacob Blake police shooting in Wisconsin; She said she would not participate in her semi-final at the Western & Southern Open, then decided to play after the tournament was complete. solidarity day off.
Osaka and her coach have said they believe activism off the pitch has helped her have energy and mindset in games.
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